Combat Kitchen Linen Fatigue
My kitchen was looking drab. I haven’t replaced any kitchen linens in years, and frankly my oven mitts and tea towels were a bit on the embarrassing side. I’m going to show you a picture, and you’ll know why these items have not previously appeared in any posts!!
Yech. Horrible! Don’t laugh. It could happen to anyone.
I get these ideas…
They poke at me, pester me, and generally make a nuisance of themselves until I do something about it. Once the kitchen linens were on my radar, the results were inevitable. It had to be done. So I turned up some Gimme Gimmes
I’ve been doing quite a bit of sewing lately, and the two ideas began to intersect at the back of my mind.
I rummaged through my stack (- ok – it’s a closet – I keep everything!) of unwearable clothing, old towels & sheets, scraps of fabric and other assorted recycleable (read: craft) items and came up with a pair of never worn fatigue-green cotton pants, a large scrap of some grey fabric and an old white towel.
I don’t have any thermal batting
First, I soaked the towel in some Oxiclean
I can follow patterns, but I’m the type of person who doesn’t.:D I just start cutting and putting things together until I like it, then I sew it all up!! Sometimes I mark and measure. Other times I just go by eye. I am more of a brute force crafter than a meticulous by the book stickler type.
I am more of a brute force crafter than a meticulous by the book stickler type.
I definitely wanted to use the printed part of the pants for a design feature, so chopping that off was first on the list. I placed an old mitt over the area and left plenty of allowance while “tracing” the rough shape with a tailors pen
After playing with the different fabrics together, I cut wide strips of grey fabric and removed the bottom hem of the green fabric. I stitched them together into my pattern before pinning 2 of the glove shapes onto doubled towel material and cutting it out.
So all together, I had 4 of each.
I used the grey fabric to create a little hanger; which I couldn’t convince to pull through itself. Rather than remaking them, I left the stitching on the outside as part of the design. Then I sewed the towel pieces onto each glove piece.
Everything got pinned together, sewn up and turned out.
I love them! I had a chance to test them out a couple hours later while making dinner, and I found them more heat resistant then my old battered oven mitts, so the experiment was a success!! And I now have some cute custom oven mitts!!
Dinner baked at 350, the real test will be when I make bread at 500F!
Of course the new mitts made the tea towels look shabby; so I couldn’t quit now, I still had plenty of fabric! I wouldn’t mind owning a couple of hot pads either. Why not? I made the whole set!! Although…I could still use a bread bag and a straining bag – ooh and an apron. Hmm. I’ll let that percolate in the brain box for a few days.
I made one extra long hot pad – never owned one like it before. I originally planned to quilt the whole thing together, but after turning it out, I decided not to close it up. So it kind of reminds me of a wine bag or something.
Wine, by the way, pairs really well with crafting.:)
posted by Katherines Corner on April 25, 2015
Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop. xo
posted by Yogurt Hydro on April 26, 2015
Hi Katherine:) You know I show up every week!! Thanks for stopping by!
posted by Debi @ Surroundings by Debi on May 3, 2015
How creative! Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop!
posted by YogurtHydro on May 3, 2015
Thanks Debi, I’ll see you next week!:)
posted by Lee Hernandez on May 4, 2015
I like that you are a “fly by seat of your pants” kind of seamstress. Nice pun! Did you put the 3 layers together by first placing the 2 green pieces right sides together, then adding the towel layer, then sewing around the edges? You didn’t say at that step. I learned that method of sewing 3 layers many years ago. I had completely forgotten until I recently saw someone’s post on Pinterest on sewing pot holders. Thanks to Pinterest I have my creative brain turned back on! Thanks too for your tute.
posted by YogurtHydro on May 4, 2015
I pinned each green piece to the towel separately and cut the towel to size that way.
Then the towel pieces (still pinned on after trimming) were sewn onto each green piece.
Then place the two sides of the glove, right sides together – don’t forget the hanger – pin, and sew it all up.
One thing I had forgotten after quite some time of not needing it – if you’re sewing a few layers and it’s too thick to fit under the presser foot; the foot actually lifts higher using the same lever as usual.
I hadn’t needed it in so long I’d completely forgotten the feature was available!
I know what you mean; thanks to Pinterest, I have too much in my “to try” folder and not enough time to try them all!:)
posted by Linda on May 5, 2015
@Adriana. I think the problem might be Hometalk, because I tried several times to send a couple of posts yesterday and they just wouldn’t ‘take’. Also there are are no #s above to click to see previous posts, so can’t see the reply you sent to me.
posted by YogurtHydro on May 7, 2015
Morning Linda:) I made my sourdough bread yesterday evening at 475F, and the one layer of towel held up for me.
It’s hard to say what will work for you because your fabric and towel may be very different from mine.
You could do a search on Amazon (or wherever you prefer) for Insulbrite or thermal batting. Those are the recommended materials for making oven mitts heat resistant.
posted by YogurtHydro on May 5, 2015
I think they may have updated the javascript. If you clear your browsers history/cookies it should start working again – I couldn’t get anything to work until I tried that!
I replied: I used only 1 layer of towel per side. I didn’t have a problem at 350F, but haven’t tried higher temps yet. I have a preferment ready for sourdough for tomorrow (500F) – I’ll definitely let you know how it goes.
posted by Dale Hunsberger on May 9, 2015
I love upcycling- and this is a great idea! Will have to pin for later!
posted by YogurtHydro on May 9, 2015
Thank you!:)
posted by Moumous on May 12, 2015
great idea
Iris
http://lamoumous.blogspot.com
posted by jennyhud on May 16, 2015
This is such a great idea! I keep saving old clothes and saying I will get back to my sewing machine…
posted by YogurtHydro on May 16, 2015
Hahahaha…I have quite a bit of old clothes to choose from myself!:)
posted by Alina Conn on June 18, 2015
This is brilliant! And, so stylish. Love it.
posted by YogurtHydro on June 20, 2015
Thanks Alina:)
posted by Dale Hunsberger on June 23, 2015
What a great idea! I love it! I’m really into reusing old clothing. Thanks for sharing and the idea!
posted by YogurtHydro on June 23, 2015
Thanks Dale! I try to reuse as much as possible around the house. Even if the clothes are completely worn out, they make good rags for working on vehicles, cleaning, or even broken down far enough to use the fibers in paper making/paper mache.
posted by Kristin K on June 25, 2015
I LOVE what you’ve done here! How creative and imaginative you are! The cammo attire for the kitchen is the best! Well done!!!
posted by YogurtHydro on June 27, 2015
Thanks so much Kristin!
posted by Alina Conn on June 30, 2015
My mother-in-law is way more crafty than I am and I showed her this post. I asked to help me in making these. Love ’em!
posted by YogurtHydro on July 22, 2015
Oh, that’s so cool. Thanks Alina!
posted by Amanda Whitley on July 2, 2015
this is such a cool idea! my husband has plenty of clothes we could make this with and he would love it!
posted by YogurtHydro on July 22, 2015
Thanks Amanda! Have fun with it!
posted by Linda Manns Linneman on July 4, 2015
These turned out so cute. That is really using your imagination. Thank you so much for sharing
posted by YogurtHydro on July 22, 2015
Thank you Linda.:)
posted by Kristin K on July 7, 2015
I love that you re-used your “army fatigues” for a new purpose! This is exactly something I would do! Creative thinking going on here!!! You should start a new business for making these, and selling them!! You know how many men would buy these for their BBQ!!!
posted by YogurtHydro on July 22, 2015
Thanks so much Kristin! That is an interesting idea!:)
posted by Kristin K on July 10, 2015
I really think that you should start a sub-business creating these cammo BBQ items!!! Seriously, I really think people would buy them!!!
posted by Linda Manns Linneman on February 26, 2016
This is so nice. I am not much of a sewer but I am going to sign up for a class at Joanne’s Fabric. I will definitely try doing this. Thank you for sharing
posted by Lena P. on March 20, 2016
Cool idea! I’ll have to try this some day. (: